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France You Are Amazing!

I will not let the recent events in France deter me from traveling to Paris next month. KUDOS TO THE FRENCH POLICE. Great Job!!! I wanted to look back to the beauty of the city through the photos I took from a previous trip - images that never get tired.

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I've been consuming a lot of bad news to stay up-to-date on this pandemic and it has taken its toll on my mental health. Yet, in the midst of all the bad news, we see lots of motivational posts talking about taking this time to have faith, recharge, reset, and stay positive including a fake letter claiming to share Bill Gates’ thoughts on the coronavirus crisis. The so-called ‘open letter’ that was circulating on social media claimed to show that Bill Gates believes there is a ‘spiritual purpose behind everything that happens.”

I know that there’s a lot of misinformation out there including the US president touting the mainstream media as fake news. I just find it ironic that the real fake news like John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” and cartoonish editorials like “A Closer Look” by Seth Meyers open my eyes to the honest truth. One take away for me is that this health crisis exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly like our dishonest leaders, weak health system, inequality in America…

The Road to BelgradeDo you like the Chinese Highway? asked our guide. We were on a bus ride from Sofia to Belgrade and had just crossed the Bulgarian/Serbian border. Our guide tried to explain the Chinese connection in order to give us some background of Serbia's complex geopolitical history. The airstrike by NATO in the late 1990s destroyed a portion of transportation infrastructure and industrial facilities in Serbia and fueled an anti-Western sentiment. Serbia looked to the east and tried to maintain an alliance with Russia and China. China invested in the infrastructure of Serbia and became a great ally in the Kosovo dispute, one of the issues being negotiated over Serbia's acceptance into the European Union (another complex issue, but worthy of a mention because it kind of answer our question why the process of going through the Serbian border took longer.)

The bus ride was lovely, with a stretch of green flatlands and rolling hills and mountains. It was an exhilarat…

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The Great Pyramid of GizaWho said you can’t climb the Great Pyramid? Well, you can go inside the Great Pyramid and climb more than two hundred very narrow steps to see the spot where Khufu, the most powerful ruler of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, was interred for all eternity. I paid an extra 360 EGP for the experience or so I could claim I climbed the Great Pyramid. Seriously, I wanted to make the most of my visit to explore the last surviving wonder of the ancient world.

At 146.5 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for nearly 4,000 years. Constructed between c. 2580–2560 BC, it was covered by limestone casing stones. It was impressive to see the beauty of the structure from the outside and to hear our guide talked about the astronomical and engineering principles behind the structure. For example, the sides of the pyramid are precisely aligned to the cardinal points of the compass. The triangular shape entrance, which is no longer accessi…

I consider myself blessed by the many beautiful religious places I’ve
seen in my life - the Vatican, Jerusalem, and the Wailing Wall, the temples in Kathmandu, the Hassan II Mosque in Morocco, the Blue Mosque in Turkey, Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and Bagan's more than 2000 temples, the Ling Yin Soul Retreat Temple in China - now there’s a new
addition to the list: Rila Monastery and my new way of seeing things. WhenTurkish
Airlines changed my connecting flights to Sofia, Bulgaria to a much earlier time that no
one could not possibly make, I rebooked my flight to an earlier
date.It gave me a chance to explore the
city on my own before joining a group tour to the Balkans.I had another stroke of luck when out of the blue, I received an email from a travel buddy from my North African past two weeks before my trip.She happened to live and teach at Sofia
University, so she gave me a list of things to see and do in Bulgaria.

Dr. Beach named Hapuna Beach as one of the best beaches in America. With sugary white sand stretching for half a mile, Hapuna Beach is best for beach volleyball and other forms of recreation. And with clear water and rock-free bottom, its best for swimming, boogie boarding and body surfing. But for our friend's BF it was best for watching the sunset. So he took us there late in the afternoon.

After setting up our tent, J went snorkeling. E followed him, and they ended up swimming and chasing the waves. I did swim for a few minutes, but for me, it was about chasing sun-rays, waves, and sunset with my camera. I started taking pictures as soon the sun made its way into the horizon, built its color intensity, and until it faded.

I was able to capture J & E as he splashed her or they splashed each other playfully and embraced as a single silhouette against the fading sun.

But my favorite moment was when my 'Mr. Cool’ slipped quietly into the shimmering waters in his surfboard t…